How do you define class?? (Working, Middle, Upper)

[johnaliola]

For sure. I am more pointing out that there is a big difference between a private a school that costs £12k a year and Eton.

And somewhere between those two is the boundary between middle and upper classes but don’t ask me where.

 

[billyiddo]

There’s a technical (for want of a better word) definition and then there’s how people perceive themselves.
By any technical metric I am middle class - eg home owner, degree educated, decent salary when I was working (white not blue collar), comfortable income/investments in retirement, will probably leave more than I can spend (although I’m giving it a good shot to make sure it’s all spent!) unless I need care home provision - but in my mind I am still working class because that’s my origins. It’s how my parents started out, even if they ended up as homeowners through right to buy, manual/service workers but never on benefits but they were definitely working class and that’s still my mindset. Unions, workers rights, etc. Not sure what difference it makes really. People generally can’t be pigeon holed into specific brackets.

I think there's the life you have built for yourself and the life you were raised in - the latter for me defines the person more than the former.

 

[robp135]

There’s a technical (for want of a better word) definition and then there’s how people perceive themselves.
By any technical metric I am middle class - eg home owner, degree educated, decent salary when I was working (white not blue collar), comfortable income/investments in retirement, will probably leave more than I can spend (although I’m giving it a good shot to make sure it’s all spent!) unless I need care home provision - but in my mind I am still working class because that’s my origins. It’s how my parents started out, even if they ended up as homeowners through right to buy, manual/service workers but never on benefits but they were definitely working class and that’s still my mindset. Unions, workers rights, etc. Not sure what difference it makes really. People generally can’t be pigeon holed into specific brackets.

I’ve always felt my love of Spurs deep down is because it’s one of my my only remaining connections to working class routes of parents and grandparents. You get of the train at White Hart Lane and have to walk through the council estate, past the bookies, corner shops and pubs that still have a sticky floors and stale beer smell. It’s one of the few places left in London to not have been gentrified and in parts it’s like going back in a time machine until you get to the stadium which is like being going the other direction.

 

[thfcsteff]

It's a really good question to ask in 2026, because the parameters are shifting all the time. As, TBH, are the definitions. I wonder what the 'working class' is now myself, given the pummeling typically 'working class' jobs have received over decades, and given that even the 'new working class' jobs in the lower areas of tech are being eliminated by Ai.

 

[thfcsteff]

I’ve always felt my love of Spurs deep down is because it’s one of my my only remaining connections to working class routes of parents and grandparents. You get of the train at White Hart Lane and have to walk through the council estate, past the bookies, corner shops and pubs that still have a sticky floors and stale beer smell. It’s one of the few places left in London to not have been gentrified and in parts it’s like going back in a time machine until you get to the stadium which is like being going the other direction.

So interesting you say this...the walk from Seven Sisters to the stadium is absolutely still somewhat of a time-warp (albeit that small 'pub' near the first major crossroads was actually a public toilet way back in the day, and my favourite chippy from then disappeared 30 years ago)...but it is absolutely part of what makes my home matchday experience. Maybe because we're ex-pats and don't get back to games as much as we used to we really hohn in on these things? But I am right there with you...